November quests and catch-all [OPEN]

[amakakeru]

🧙 WHO: Rider (Sakamoto Ryouma) and you!
⚔️️ WHAT: Quests and other stuff
🕒 WHEN: November
🗺️ WHERE: Various places
⚠️ WARNINGS: None so far, check thread headers for specifics



[ 1. Alms for the Gore ]

[ Of course Ryouma isn't going to kill the fear gorta. They seem harmless enough; he'd already put some food into one of their bowls and that seemed to settle it down immediately. If he sees someone going to slay one, he intercepts them in an attempt to appeal to their sense of reason. ]

Stop for a moment...Do you really think it's going to do anything to harm you? It can barely lift the bowl in its hands.

[ He'd like to stop any unnecessary violence, thank you very much. ]

[ 2. Magic Flu ]

[ There is one miserable white horse with a black mane and tail laying on the ground on the outskirts of the city. It's not like Ryouma meant to transform into a horse like this -- he'd just sneezed and suddenly ended up like this. Now he can't even figure out how to shift back and he's really just not happy about all of this.

Unfortunately for whoever walks near him or comes to check on him, he sneezes on them -- enjoy the sudden partial transformation or the unfortunate ability to understand wild animals for the next little while. ]

Sorry...You really don't want to catch this.

[ Nevermind he may have accidentally spread it...Oops. ]

[ 3. Wildcard ]

[ These prompts not doing it for you? Have an idea? Drop me a starter or PM me here or on discord glitzkrieg#0673 and we can work something out! ]

Comments

closed to izo; cw: mentions of execution and suicide

[amakakeru]

[ Ryouma normally isn't one to fall asleep so easily, but a careful combination of exhaustion and exertion can change that just as easily. After the lean meal, he'd set up a small sleeping area away from most of their party, just secluded enough to afford him and Izō a little bit of privacy.

He mutters a quiet goodnight to Izō as he settles in; that's the last pleasant thought he has. The moment he settles into sleep, it feels like a weight has crawled onto his chest. One of the freed little demons is here to make his night that much worse.

Wandering in the darkened forest, he feels like he's being followed. Shadows crawl through the trees and along the ground, scurrying to get ahead of him. Familiar shapes, nothing more than distorted shadows with stark red streaks marking their method of death -- he knows each one by name and that alone is enough to make his chest ache. Ryouma's own hands are stained red with blood and all he can do is look between the shades and his hands. Haunted by the ghosts of his past, of those left in his wake, or those he left behind for once reason or another. The three before him are the ones that weigh most heavily on him: Takechi (the least of the three, if he were to be honest), his sister, and...Izō.

Curses, pleading questions of why and how, and other words hurled at him echo through the forest. All he can do is stare straight ahead and... ]

I'm sorry...

[ Apologize.

It's not enough. It'll never be enough. One death is too many...Even if none of them were his fault (especially not Takechi's), it still feels like he could have prevented them somehow if circumstances had been different. Now he can't even make himself wake up from this...

He deserves this, doesn't he? ]

[hitokiri]

[ izō didn't think much of ryouma turning in early until things started getting eerie. it soon becomes obvious who is and isn't affected, and despite his attempts to insist that he'd be way more useful attacking the things from the outside, izō has been roped into... whatever's happening right now.

and he really doesn't want to be here.

it's nothing against ryouma. izō's not unwilling to do what he can either, but he feels less like help and more like an invasion of privacy. if things were reversed, he wouldn't want someone seeing inside his head either — especially someone who knows enough to potentially understand what it all means.

somehow it also manages to be worse than he expected.

it's not real though. it's not even his dream. izō just has to remember that, even if he thinks he hears familiar voices in the dark he doesn't want to follow.

but following them gets him where he needs to go. if izō was supposed to handle this delicately, they got the wrong man for the job because he barges right into the middle of what's happening, trying to look anywhere but at who else is standing there besides ryouma. he's almost afraid of what will happen if he does, like the last time he acknowledged a bad imitation of himself. ]

The hell are ya doin'? This shit ain't real. Ya gotta wake up now!

[ ryouma knows how to make that happen, right? ]

[amakakeru]

[ Silence falls after Izō calls to i'm. The voices stop, the shades still. Everything is quiet except for a steady

drip

drip

drip...

of blood dripping from his hands. Ryouma doesn't want to look at him, his heart pounding in his ears. Every time he looks at him, all he can see if what happened to him -- even if it wasn't his fault, he surely could have done more to save him from the path he wandered, couldn't he? ]

Izō... [ He finally looks at him, wide-eyed and trembling. ] You should go.

[ The silence doesn't last as the voices start up again, louder, angrier, and more desperate. How is he just supposed to wake up...? ]

[hitokiri]

[ seeing that expression on ryouma's face unsettles him more than he cares to admit and for a few moments he doesn't know what to say.

then the voices start up again. ]

Aw, shut the fuck up! I ain't doin' this shit so I could jus' turn around an' leave without gettin' the job done...

[ they probably won't listen, but it doesn't matter. he's angry all of a sudden but he can't put his finger on why. ryouma telling him to go? having to see at least one face he never wanted to see again? the people on the outside who twisted his arm over this? there's a lot of blame to go around.

is this how it's always been? after years of convincing himself that ryouma had made the choices he had lightly — because that's how it had seemed to izō at the time — he doesn't know what to make of this. but he can't think about it now because if he lets himself get caught up in it he doesn't know what'll happen. can you get trapped in someone else's dream? ]

Don't fuckin' blow me off, asshole! It's a dream. Jus' mind tricks. Ya gotta get a hold of yer self!

[ it's frustrating having no experience with this. but you're supposed to be able to do anything in dreams, right? it's not like they play by the same rules as reality...

maybe ryouma just needs to be convinced? ]

Ya know damn well ya ain't got blood on yer hands...

[ izō already knows he's guilty of accusing ryouma of just the opposite and contributing to the problem; his own voice parroting the harsh words he'd said once guarantees he can't overlook it. he can't take back those things he'd said before, so it can't be helped, but he can try being the one dissenting voice in all this at least..? he doesn't really have any other ideas right now. ]

[amakakeru]

[ As much as he wants to try to force Izō away, it feels too cruel, crueler than the voices tormenting him right now. Ryouma can't keep his hands from trembling still as he gets closer to him. This may just be a dream, but it feels as real as anything. Maybe that's why he grabs onto Izō's coat, blood soaking into it now. He's real, isn't he? Or is he...? He can't know, but he'll cling to him like he is.]

Don't I? [ Izō can see it, too, can't he? His voice is so quiet it can barely be heard above the din around them. The more he talks, the more desperate and sad he sounds. At some point, he'd started to cry. ] If I'd stayed in Tosa, my sister might have lived. If I could have convinced Takechi of finding another way, maybe he wouldn't have gone as far as he did. [ Doubtful. Even Ryouma knew that was wishful thinking. ] And you...If I'd been able to get you to come with me... [ Away from Takechi and away from the path he'd been sent down. ] Things could've ended differently.

[ Were their lives worth his ambition? A question that still him, that the demon preys on. ]

2

[impostorsyndrome]

[Now that he's officially taken over and begin expanding Tanaka's animal shelter—also conveniently located on the outskirts of the city—Kadoc isn't about to just leave a clearly distressed animal lying around out here. This is his job now! So he begins to approach slowly, making sure he's in the horse's line of sight, you never want to sneak up on a horse . . .

Only to get sneezed on, and then spoken to. Ah. So it's just an Animal Mage after all . . . gross, though. He was at enough of a distance when the sneeze hit him that he only sprouts raggedy grey tabby cat ears and tail, but the tail poofs up in reaction to the surprise.]

Ugh—here I was trying to figure out how I was gonna get you to the stables. I'll spare you. . . . Unless you think you're gonna be stuck like this for a while.

[Long enough to need to rest in a stable, anyway.]

. . . You okay? Dumb question, I know.

[amakakeru]

[ Ah...Kadoc is familiar to him, not even through the text conversation they had. Knowing he's here and seeing him are two very different things and he can't help but be a little guarded at first. It's an impulse and an instinct that fades pretty quickly; a truce is a truce and he won't do anything that might jeopardize that. ]

...I don't know how long I'm going to be stuck like this. [ Embarrassing to admit. He doesn't have a good grasp on on his secondary magic still, to say the least. As far as the second question... ] I'm fine enough...Just haven't been sick since before I was a Servant.

[impostorsyndrome]

—Which one are you?

[That's a rude way of phrasing that question, but he's surprised enough that it comes out that way anyway before he can be careful about it. Oops. He didn't expect this to be a Servant! It could've been anyone. The fact that he dropped that so casually into the conversation, as if Kadoc would understand what it meant . . . it's probably someone who knows him, then. But by now, there are several such Servants here in Camelot . . .

Well. He feels bad for the guy either way, and pauses to dig his neck gaiter out of his bag so he can at least cover his mouth and nose and potentially help this Servant out without being quite so worried he's going to catch Horse Sneeze himself.]

. . . Not that it matters. I'm not gonna just leave you here either way. Just curious. I didn't realize I was talking to a Servant, for obvious reasons.

[amakakeru]

Rider.

[ Because there's only one, right? At least he thinks so because of the conversations he's had...He's certainly the only Rider he knows of, at the very least.

Another sneeze and he shakes his head again. ]

We haven't met properly, but...We've talked in some form or fashion. [ A beat. ] Don't put yourself out on my account. I'm just sick.

[ And, you know, stuck as a horse, but details. ]

[impostorsyndrome]

[Kadoc pulls up his mask, so now he's a masked man with cat ears and tail. It's a Look. The ears are pricked up with interest, swiveled forward to listen to the voice, even if it's not one he's heard before—so no clues there. But there still is only the one Rider. So this is him. Why the long face, Rider? Ha ha ha! Get it?!

He comes closer, though he keeps some small distance, going down on one knee to be more level with this sad, sad horse man.]

. . . That sounds like exactly the kinda thing I'd say. And someone would kick my ass for it. I'm not gonna kick your ass, but I'm also not gonna just walk away. Lying on the ground out here isn't about to help you heal up.

2

[fujimaru]

...?!

[ For the most part, Ritsuka avoids horses--it's nothing personal (ish) against horses themselves, but they're very big, she's very small, and despite the best efforts of certain others (none of them Riders, ironically enough), she's never really gotten the hang of riding one. But she does know enough to know that lying down is probably bad? Don't horses sleep standing up?

The sneeze catches her completely by surprise, which makes her sputter and skitter back, a moment before it speaks--a talking horse?! Seriously??

And with that voice-- ]

Ryou-- I mean, Rider?! Is that you??

[amakakeru]

[ Oh no. Of all the people to see him like this, only one would be worse -- at least Ritsuka won't make fun of him. He snorts and slowly raises his head to give probably the saddest nod of his life. Sick and stuck as a horse, what a life... ]

That's right. [ A huff and he slowly gets to his feet, shaking his head. ] Don't get too close, you don't want to catch this.

[fujimaru]

I also just can't leave you like this??

[ Obviously?! Not that Ritsuka could leave anyone clearly in distress, human or otherwise, but especially not someone she knows!

But neither does she want to get sick, because she doesn't particularly want to be a horse, either. (If that's even part of the illness. For all she knows at this point, they're two entirely separate things, but either way...) So in the end, she just ends up hovering a bit oddly, a safety six feet away. ]

Is this something I should be getting a human doctor for? A vet?! That seems rude... --Or maybe water? A blanket? Something like that?

[amakakeru]

...Please don't bring a vet out here.

[ That would be a waste of everyone's time and a huge blow to his dignity -- not that he had much left, given his current state. Ryouma is mostly just Very Tired and would like to not be sick anymore. He has a guess as to who he caught this from... ]

Water would be nice. I can just follow you to get some. [ Something something lead a horse to water. ] You don't need to put yourself out on my account. It's just a cold.

[ Nevermind he hasn't been sick since he was human. This is weird! ]

[fujimaru]

Of course I'm gonna worry about you.

[ That's not quite what he said, no, but that's the subtext Ritsuka is reading into the situation. She makes a brief come on, then sort of gesture, waiting for him to look steady on his feet before she turns to walk. ]

I hate being sick too, but that's like the one time where you kind of have to suck it up, you know? Let me help you out.

[ This is exactly the sort of thing that's easier for her to say on this side of things, healthy for the moment. The moment she gets sick, she'd be just as bad, or even potentially worse... so she's taking some advantage of that for now. You've got to take advantage of your health where you can, right? ]

1

[mayoninofukucho]

[This is only the second time that Ryouma keeps Hijikata from killing a creature, but already he can tell that this may become a common occurrence. He stops advancing on the fear gorta, but doesn't sheathe his sword.]

I'm sure it wouldn't be able to harm me, but it's a zombie. They may only eat food now, but watch, before long they'll start attacking people once they've gained enough strength.

[amakakeru]

[ Ryouma is careful to keep himself in between the admittedly pathetic monster and Hijikata, just in case. He keeps his own sword in its sheath, not interested in escalating this if he doesn't have to. ]

Can you prove that, though? Have you encountered this creature before -- this exact type?

[mayoninofukucho]

Are you serious?! You want me to prove that this is a zombie?

[He snorts, somewhat aggravated, then walks around the creature (which is still eating slowly with shaky hands) and starts counting its traits on his fingers.]

One, it's dead!

[It certainly looks dead - bony beyond belief, missing the tips of two fingers, sporting glassy, sunken eyes and some nasty-looking pustules where its ragged clothes reveal part of its shoulder... and then there's that graven smell.]

Second, it's moaning!

[It is. They're small, low moans that could mean anything and nothing, but it's definitely not coherent.]

Third, it's mindless!

[He waves a hand in front of its face, but it doesn't pay him any heed and simply keeps eating... until it does notice after a moment, opens its mouth and reaches for his fingers, at which point he pulls them back.]

See?! It wanted to eat my hand!

[It... is a lot slower than the zombies of the Lands of Rot, he'll admit that. With his hand withdrawn the creature stares into the empty air for a moment, then seemingly remembers the rest of the food in its bowl and resumes its meal.]

[amakakeru]

[ Ryouma seems unimpressed by all of his proof. It seems he's not going to budge until the creature actually proves itself to be dangerous. ]

I'd probably try bite someone who stuck their hand in my face while I was trying to eat, too. Just leave it be...It'll probably go back into the ground once it's finished.

[mayoninofukucho]

You're going to get yourself killed so fast with that attitude. I've hardly ever seen a problem just go away around these parts.

[Seriously, what is this man going to do if he encounters something really dangerous? Which, for the record, Hijikata still considers the fear gorta to fall under... though he has to admit that its behaviour is increasingly giving him pause.]

I've never seen a zombie eat out of a bowl, I'll give you that.

...

Let me test something.

[He pulls a mayonnaise bottle out of his uniform jacket (as you do), steps up to the creature again, and squirts a generous amount into its bowl, then puts the bottle away, crosses his arms and observes.]

Izo; event

[amakakeru]

[ Snow is an entirely novel concept for Ryouma. He'd never been in a place where it actually snowed -- Chaldea and its eternal winter status notwithstanding. Hearing it snowed overnight has him giddy like a little kid, to the point he's urged Izō out of bed in the early morning hours.

The moment they're out the door of the inn and into one of the helpfully dug tunnels, Ryouma is already skittering ahead. ]

Izō, look! [ He laughs as he pats the walls of the tunnel. ] Can you believe this?! I've never seen anything like it!

[hitokiri]

[ unsurprisingly, being woken up early over something like the weather has izō in an unpleasant mood as he drags along after a much more enthusiastic ryouma. mostly because he lacks a proper frame of reference to understand what the big deal is.

that changes once they get outside. just like that, izō is over being angry because he has to touch it and similarly starts patting the walls and generally being confused and amazed at this development. ]

Oi, Ryouma! .... How far do ya think these go?

[ he's awake now. ]

[amakakeru]

[ Seeing Izō's mood improve almost instantly just makes him that much happier. ]

No idea! Why don't we find out together?

[ He reaches out to take his hand without even thinking. It's a new adventure and he feels like a child...It's refreshing after the difficult times they've had recently. A fresh experience for the both of them without any painful baggage.

How nice. ]

[hitokiri]

[ there's a moment or two of being keenly aware of the fact that ryouma had just grabbed his hand like it was nothing, but he's a little too jazzed about this snow business to fuss about it right now. he has the same sense of childish wonderment and there's probably no harm in letting things be and exploring a little... ]

Heh, y-.. yeah. Might as well, huh?

[ in his defence, his weakness for ryouma smiling like he is is well-established. ]

[amakakeru]

[ If Ryouma notices his hesitation, he doesn't say anything about it. The lack of his usual tsun is noticed, a thing to file away for later. Maybe it's the fact that this is so new to both of them that it overrides his usual proclivities.

No time to think about that. ]

Unless you've got something better to do right now?

[ The way he grins says that he's kidding -- what else can they do when there's this much snow around? He squeezes Izō's hand before he turns around to continue along the tunnel, resisting the urge to take off running again. It's okay to take their time right now. No pressing issues, no dire need to hurry...

Eventually, the tunnel splits into three, each going a different way. Ryouma comes to a stop and finally lets go of Izō's hand. ]

Well...Which way should we go: left, right, or straight ahead?